A wide range of off-highway, work vehicles have been developed for various purposes. In smaller work vehicles, seats and other operator supports may be sufficient, and these may be mounted on various forms of springs and other suspension components. However, in larger or more complex works vehicles, such as certain agricultural tractors and construction equipment, a partially or fully enclosed cab is more desirable, providing one or more operators with a comfortable location from which the vehicle may be operated. Such cabs, sometimes referred to as “operator environments” also provide a central location to which controls and operator interfaces may be fed, and from which most or all of the vehicle functions may be easily controlled.
Agricultural tractors and other large work vehicles are often required to provide some type of roll-over protection system (ROPS) to protect the operator in the event of a roll-over. Typically, a work vehicle with ROPS includes a cab frame coupled to the vehicle chassis via a suspension system. The suspension system is generally designed to provide for some limited movement of the cab frame relative to the chassis while still providing a suitable load transfer path between the cab frame and the chassis to accommodate roll-over loads. In addition, the cab frame, itself, typically includes a plurality of structural members coupled to one another to form a relatively stiff structural frame, with suitable gussets being coupled between one or more pairs of adjacent structural members to provide further stiffness and rigidity to the cab frame.
For example, FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a conventional gusset 200 that is often used to stiffen the cab frame of a work vehicle. As shown, the gusset 200 includes a first sidewall 202, a second sidewall 204 and an outer face 206 extending between the first and second sidewalls 202, 204. The outer face 206 generally serves as a means for connecting the sidewalls 202, 204 and also serves to prevent such sidewalls 202, 204 from deforming relative to one another as loads are transmitted through the gusset 200.
Such conventional gussets 200 and other similar gussets (e.g., triangular plate gussets) typically provide consistent, high stiffness at all loading conditions. As a result, current gussets are well equipped to stiffen the structure of a cab frame as well as to reduce stress at the weld joints defined between the gussets and adjacent structural members of the cab frame. However, due to their high stiffness and rigidity, such gussets typically do not deform or otherwise absorb a significant amount of energy at increased loading conditions. Accordingly, other structural components of the cab frame and/or other ROPS components are typically required to deform significantly in order to absorb the increased energy resulting from a roll-over event, which is often undesirable
Accordingly, an improved gusset for a ROPS frame or any other suitable structural frame that is capable of deforming and, thus, absorbing energy, at increased loading conditions would be welcomed in the technology.